With just five teams left in the Stanley Cup playoffs — and if New York does the business tonight, that number will drop to four — now’s a good time to look back at the flurry of action on (and leading up to) February’s NHL trade deadline.

Carter’s numbers hardly jump off the page (1G-3A-4PTS) but Los Angeles’ numbers since acquiring him sure do. Including the playoffs, the Kings are 21-6-3 since the Feb. 23 trade. Oh yeah, they’re also going to their first Western Conference finals since 1993.

The Devils gave up plenty to land Zidlicky but, like Carter, you can’t argue with the numbers. New Jersey’s 21-11-2 since getting him; Zidlicky leads all Devils in postseason ice-time (24:39) and has six points in 12 games thus far.

Rolston put up 15 points in 21 regular season games and started the postseason well, scoring a point in each of the first three games. He faded at the end, probably because he’s 39 years old, but considering they gave up nothing to get him and Mottau, the Bruins did okay.

David Poile — recently named one of the three GM of the year finalists — dealt away a first-rounder for a guy that was often Nashville’s fourth-line center. In the Phoenix series, Gaustad averaged 10:33 per game.

Since this trade wasn’t a prototypical deadline deal — it’s safe to say Vancouver made this one with an eye on the future — it can’t be graded. If you did want to grade it as a trade deadline deal, though, it would be classified as “bad, very very bad” for Vancouver.

The Canucks shipped out an offensively talented player (then proceeded to score eight goals in five games against the Kings) in exchange for Kassian, who was supposed to bring physicality but ended up only playing four of five playoff games (4:51 of ice per) and recording exactly five hits.

Other trades I don’t feel especially compelled to analyze, but feel free to debate them thoroughly in the comments section

Fresh off losing a key player for Game 5, the Flyers look like they’re getting one back.

That’s the news after the morning skate — Philly.com’s Sam Carchidi reports Flyers defenseman Andrej Meszaros “appears in” for tonight’s elimination contest against New Jersey. The steady rearguard has yet to play in this postseason after undergoing back surgery in late March.

If that’s the case, it’s a huge boon for a team reeling from the loss of leading scorer Claude Giroux, who is suspended for tonight’s game after delivering headshot to Dainius Zubrus in Game 4.

NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman noted that, with defenseman Andreas Lilja skating with the scratches (Pavel Kubina, Jody Shelley), all signs point to Meszaros playing his first game since Mar. 1. Prior to getting hurt, “Mez” was playing over 20 minutes a night and led all Flyers defensemen in goals, with seven.

As for other debuts, Zac Rinaldo figures to get his first look of the series tonight in place of Giroux. The 21-year-old hasn’t played since Game 4 of the Pittsburgh series — a 10-3 loss in which he saw just 3:39 of action — but sounded determined to make a difference with Philly’s season on the line.

“G’s been our best player all year. We owe him one,” Rinaldo told Philly.com. “This one is for him.”

At the time, it seemed like the Philadelphia Flyers overpaid Jaromir Jagr when they handed him a $3.3 million contract, but the brilliance of that deal was that it was for just one year. Of course, that’s also the problem now that it worked out: they have to re-sign the 40-year-old winger. Sam Carchidi floats an interesting nugget from “a source”: he’s not even their top off-season priority.

Instead, the team reportedly believes that inking defenseman Matt Carle is a bigger deal.

On its face, that might seem weird. After all, Jagr has been a smash-hit alongside Scott Hartnell and Claude Giroux while Carle has his occasional defensive lapses. Yet there are a number of reasons why this stance makes a lot of sense.

Carle is 27 while Jagr is 40-years-old.

As great as Jagr has been, it’s logical to assume that other (possibly cheaper and younger) forwards could succeed on that line, too.

With Chris Pronger likely out of the picture, Carle joins Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn as one of Philly’s most valuable defenseman. D is more of a need than offense for Philly.

Jagr’s increasing age is also bringing about more incidents of injury. That’s unlikely to change as he gets even older (he’ll turn 41 next season).

Also, from a “fan service” standpoint, Jagr’s not a long-time fixture. It’s not like they’d be the Anaheim Ducks letting Teemu Selanne walk.

That being said, the Flyers already invest a surprising amount of money in their up-and-down D corps. Here’s a look at the contracts they have under contract after this season (Pavel Kubina’s $3.85 million hit mercifully expires this summer).

As you can see, the Flyers invest a lot in … everything, it seems. The thing is, Giroux’s amazing bargain ($3.75M per year through 2013-14) allows them to overpay in other areas.

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GM Paul Holmgren might be able to squeeze both under the cap, but if it comes down to one or the other, word is he’ll go with Carle. After looking at all those factors, do you think that would be the right choice?

“I don’t know at this point, we’ll see,” he said. “It feels good to be on the ice. I haven’t talked to the doctors yet. I don’t want to make any conclusions yet. I feel better every day and try to take it a day at a time.”

Grossmann was teamed up with Braydon Coburn during Flyers practice this afternoon, providing a good sign that he could be ready to go against the Devils. Fellow injured defenseman Andrej Meszaros practiced on a pairing with Pavel Kubina meaning Meszaros is getting better but not ready to return.

The Flyers could use Grossmann to help defend against Zach Parise, Ilya Kovalchuk, Patrik Elias, and Adam Henrique who have been providing the offensive punch for the Devils all season and into the playoffs.

Game 1: Sunday, April 29 at Philadelphia 3 p.m. (NBC, CBC)
Game 2: Tuesday, May 1 at Philadelphia 7:30 p.m. (NBCSN, CBC)
Game 3: Thursday, May 3 at New Jersey 7:30 p.m. (NBCSN, CBC)
Game 4: Sunday, May 6 at New Jersey 7:30 p.m. (NBCSN, CBC)
Game 5: *Tuesday, May 8 at Philadelphia, TBD
Game 6: *Thursday, May 10 at New Jersey, TBD
Game 7: *Saturday, May 12 at Philadelphia, TBD

Three storylines to follow

1. Philly’s flying offense. The Flyers scored 30 goals in their six-game ousting of Pittsburgh, highlighted by Claude Giroux (6G-8A) coming within one point of Tim Kerr’s franchise record for most points (15) in a series. Four other Flyers — Danny Briere, Jakub Voracek, Jaromir Jagr and Brayden Schenn — averaged at least a point a game and 12 different players scored goals. That, folks, is a dynamic offensive attack.

2. The ageless wonder. After getting yanked in Game 3 of the Florida series, 39-year-old Martin Brodeur turned back the clock. He proceeded to stop 113 of his next 119 shots faced and came up huge as the Devils faced elimination, stopping 14 of 16 in Game 6 and 43 of 45 in Thursday’s double-overtime Game 7. Brodeur finished the series with a 2.06 GAA and .922 save percentage, his best numbers in years.

3. Blueline woes. The Flyers will start this series without the services of Andrej Meszaros and Nicklas Grossman (and were already without Chris Pronger). That, combined with a largely ineffective Pavel Kubina, forced Philly to essentially roll with five defenseman in Game 6 against Pittsburgh — Brayden Coburn, Matt Carle, Kimmo Timonen, Erik Gustafsson and Andreas Lilja — with Coburn logging a game-high 29:27.